Gal (unit)

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The Gal or Galileo is the CGS unit of acceleration. It is defined as 1 centimetre per second squared. The symbol for the Gal is Gal. It has nothing to do with the liquid measure gallon, although both are sometimes abbreviated gal.

In SI units: 1 Gal = 0.01 m/s².

The acceleration due to gravity at the Earth's surface is 976 to 983 Gal; the variation is mainly with latitude and elevation.

Variations in gravitational acceleration, due to mountains or masses of lesser density within the Earth's crust, are typically tens to hundreds of milliGals (mGal). This is especially important in the field of geophysics.

The Gal is named after Galileo Galilei, a physicist who made the first measurements of the acceleration due to gravity.

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